This story was originally reported by the Florida Times-Union.
After a week of headlines about an upcoming deadline for members to sign a form agreeing to the church’s “Statement of Biblical Sexuality” on its stance on LGBTQ+ and other “sins” of what he termed a "sexual revolution," First Baptist Church of Jacksonville Senior Pastor Heath Lambert told its congregants and members of the public that the church “is not closing our doors to anybody.”
Lambert’s words came Sunday evening during a 90-minute “open mic” forum to listen to – and respond to – concerns about the church’s requirement that its members affirm their support for the church’s positions on gender and marriage or be removed from its membership.
Hundreds of people – almost all apparent congregants – filled the church's downtown auditorium, where about 10 people chose to speak on the issue.
One woman challenged the requirement. Noting she came with her partner of seven years, she encouraged congregants to stop attending First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, saying the decision to have its members sign any kind of contract to attend “turns your church into an organization, a club.”
“This church is no longer a religious place of worship welcome to all. … Forcing your members to sign a contract erasing our existence just adds to the mountains of resentment that LGBTQ+ people already have for the church at large. Is that what you want? To draw a larger wedge between God and queer people? To sanitize the world from us or eliminate our existence? This oath is disgusting and not what God would want,” said the woman, who described herself as queer and noted she was raised in the Baptist church.
Another woman who identified herself as a congregant said she was undecided whether to sign but feared being unwelcome and being unable to share the joy of her faith with her family.
Other speakers and many in the audience voiced support for the document as a demonstration of their religious beliefs.
Lambert, who has served in his role as sole senior pastor at the church since May 2018, emphasized that all are welcome at the church, which has locations in downtown and Nocatee.
“If you disagree with us, you are welcome here. Not everybody can be a member here, but you are welcome here,” Lambert said. “First Baptist is not closing our doors to anybody.”
Lambert said the statement was approved by church leaders and lay officials and voted on by the congregation.
He also said the church’s statement is typical because it simply is a statement of their belief. In addition, he said it is “abundantly Biblical, abundantly Christian and it is not strange or new to have a statement of faith.”
This story was originally reported by the Florida Times-Union.
What is the First Baptist Church Statement on Biblical Sexuality?
“As a member of First Baptist Church, I believe that God creates people in his image as either male or female, and that this creation is a fixed matter of human biology, not individual choice. I believe marriage is instituted by God, not government, is between one man and one woman, and is the only context for sexual desire and expression.
Why is the church's sexuality statement news now?
Though the statement was adopted by the First Baptist Church congregation last fall, the topic became a point of community discussion in the last week after multiple Jacksonville-area TV stations reported the church’s requirement that its members affirm the statement on a membership form by March 19 to “ensure your membership at First Baptist Church continues without any interruption.”
The form, available on the church’s website, asks its congregants to check a box next to the statement: “I agree with and will uphold the biblical truth contained in the First Baptist Statement on Biblical Sexuality.”
The form then asks the head of household to provide contact information, date of birth, gender and marital status and to list other family members by name.
“Requiring agreement with this statement for all members is an exercise in faithfulness to Jesus Christ whom we trust and serve,” the form reads. “It is an exercise in clarity so that our members might understand our most fundamental commitments in a sexually confused world. It is also an exercise in love toward a lost world that desperately needs to know God’s standard for human sexuality.”
Members who fail to sign and deliver the statement by March 19 “will be considered to have resigned your membership from First Baptist,” according to a resources page on the church’s website detailing the sexuality statement. “But you can always join again by going through our membership process – attending the membership class, meeting with a pastor, and being voted on by the congregation.”
What is the reaction?
In a blog post published and shared via Twitter on Friday, Lambert wrote that the statement “is a very straightforward and biblical statement. Without singling out any one specific sin, it summarizes God’s design for gender, marriage, and sexuality. This positive statement equally forbids the range of human sinful sexual expression, including fornication, adultery, pornography, homosexuality, transgenderism, and others.”
Since the church’s decision to approve the statement last fall, Lambert wrote that First Baptist has received a “windfall of support” and “great enthusiasm” for the church’s position from its own congregation and that “leaders in the religious and legal world have asked permission to use the statement in their own context.”
In the post, Lambert acknowledged that there have been some questions about the church’s decision to require its members to support the statement – even from those who agree with the statement.
And in a video shared via Twitter on Friday, Lambert went further, saying “a lot of people in our community have had concern and questions and anger” about the statement and invited members of the public to Sunday’s “open mic” night. “If you’re brave enough to ask your questions and express your concerns, I’ll be brave enough to listen and try to respond,” Lambert said.
In an interview with First Coast News, Lambert said, “Everybody in our culture is fighting about sex, and we want our congregation to be happy and kind, and so we don’t want to fight about it, and so it’s just very helpful to say, ‘Here’s what we think about it, and if you want to be a part of our congregation. If you don’t, that’s fine too.’”
When was the sexuality statement first shared?
The statement was first shared with the church’s congregation in an hour-long September 25 town hall meeting at the church and shared with its members via video posted to its website and YouTube the following day.
“I want to talk to you about what I believe is one of the most significant actions that we must take as a church,” Lambert says in the video before introducing the sexuality statement.
In a second video, a 7-minute-long highly produced video shot in a barren, street-level room, Lambert describes the church’s position on sexuality, its statement on sexuality and its requirement that all members agree to those convictions as a condition of membership.
In the video hosted on YouTube and shared on the church’s website, Lambert describes the “sexual revolution that our culture is experiencing" and its "threat" to First Baptist Church, concluding that “It’s crucial that our church agree on the truth of God in a confused culture. That we agree together now and that we make that agreement plain before the watching world. Every church in every age faces unique challenges. I’m convinced that one of the greatest challenges facing our church is the confusion and pain brought in to our society by the revolutionaries destroying lives and families with their false teaching on gender and sexuality. We must do our part to ensure that we are faithful in our day to address this problem … I think our church’s clarity on this crucial matter is a key step toward our faithfulness.”
Has First Baptist Church's position on LGBTQ+ issues changed?
The church’s position on LGBTQ+ issues isn’t new.
Under former senior pastor Mac Brunson’s leadership, First Baptist Church was a vocal opponent to the city’s proposed Human Rights Ordinance, which offered discrimination protections for LBGTQ+ people, and bused opponents to the measure to city meetings on the issue.
Lambert, who served as co-senior pastor with Brunson from September 2017 until Brunson stepped down in April 2018, too, was a part of the church’s efforts to defeat the ordinance, characterizing the legislation as an attempt to “affirm” homosexuality. Christians believe that is a sin, he said, and passing the legislation would be a discriminatory act against Christians.
Despite their efforts, the ordinance passed in 2017. But in a column Brunson and Lambert authored for the Times-Union, the pair criticized the decision, writing that “a bill that was supposed to eliminate a class of discrimination created a new target. Christians know that the new target is us."
Days into his role as sole senior pastor at First Baptist, Lambert told the Times-Union that the church’s overriding priority would be "Love God and love people. Our intention moving forward is to do that."
This story was originally reported by the Florida Times-Union.